The goal of this program is to train the physician-scientists of the next generations. The national experience is that the overwhelming majority of graduates of these programs become the faculty of the nation's medical schools. As such, the role of dual degree programs is two-fold: first to train the new physicians, assuring their clinical instruction will be solidly based in a scientific, analytical approach to medicine. Second, to head laboratories that is dedicated to carrying out fundamental biomedical research. The training program leads to both the M.D. and the Ph.D. degree. Students generally spend their first two years in medical school, being trained in basic biomedical science. They then enter their Ph.D. degree program and, after completion of their research and the writing of their dissertation, they return to medical school for the completion of their clinical rotations. The underlying philosophy linking the two degree programs is the insistence on high standards of performance throughout, the elimination of didactic duplication, and the emphasis on the interface between the two training paths. It is the explicit goal of our program to emphasize the interface between basic, fundamental biological and bioengineering science and clinical medicine. It is our hope that our graduates will participate not only in the generation of new biomedical knowledge and insights, but also in the transference of that knowledge to health care delivery itself.